Businesses invest in setting up foreign markets because they see future profit. Commercial businesses recognize that their success is determined by consumers. In India, McDonald's has tailored the Big Mac into the Chicken Maharaja Mac which is composed of chicken and lamb meat instead of beef. In Germany, McDonald's beer is frequently served to customers as a drink. In Hong Kong buns are replaced with rice. If your businesses is contingent upon customers, then it is business rationale to provide familiar products to attract more customers. Another reason why McDonald's culturally tailors their products is because it is easier to use indigenous goods like rice and fish rather than having to pay for shipment of potatoes and bread from the United States. Even though McDonald's still attracts customers with it's bright signature colors, it may been an entirely different experience when it comes to the menu for each country.
Food has remarkable cultural importance. Baguettes (France) and Focaccia bread (Italy) have different taste due to native flour and different baking styles. However other goods do not have such strong cultural connotations due to regulative practices. For most of my childhood I used to play a cheap Yamaha piano. Even though the company is a Japanese power-house producing everything and anything from motorcycles to sports equipment, there was no reflection of culture in the product. No matter where your piano is from, each key is tuned to a specific frequency that emits a sound when struck. In objective terms, businesses sell goods and products. The cultural attitude or the impression that we develop is how we personally relate to released goods. After breaking down the Yamaha, I moved on to a Steinway. To be honest it still played the same piece of music in the way I wanted it to be played (the Steinway was slightly better. We paid a lot more for it).
I think that when you look at globalization, it is important to see both sides of the coin. It is true that foreign trade could possibly lead to a world-wide monoculture. A world where somehow we have intermingled beliefs that are centered around a common ideology of capitalism. Culture has a major influence on our individual lives and our beliefs. Even though it is easy to lapse into negatives, it is important to realize that we have a rich diversity of choices in cars, food, and other products due to foreign interaction. The fact that I have to consider between getting a panini or having lo mein indicates that American society has been equally influenced by foreign businesses.
Even if you have the same businesses spread throughout every country, each nation has it's own set of laws and policies. In the United States, Wal-mart and other companies has had a major influence on the downsizing of U.S. pharmaceutical companies. According to U.S. law, when pharmaceutical companies produce a new drug, they are allowed to be sole distributors for a couple of years (patent). After their patent expires, any company can sell the drug they developed at a cheaper price. This has been a game of cat and mouse between pharmaceutical companies and big chain producers like Wal-mart. A pharmaceutical company will spend nearly a hundred billion dollars to develop hundreds of drugs only to finally produce a magic pill, run it by the FDA, have it patented, and then have eight years to make a justifiable profit before Wal-mart mass produces it. In the 1970s-1990s drug companies had robust research and development departments. But with new drugs being harder to find, pharmaceuticals have begun to shrink and less money is being put into research. With illnesses like the flu constantly evolving and research departments collapsing, it remains questionable how the law can affect certain businesses, as it affects society as consumers. Will Wall-mart ever have the same influence on the Chinese? The short answer is no.
Globalization is a macroscopic issue fraught with intricacies. I don't believe it's possible to shoot off one definitive answer. All I know is that the U.S. imports far more than it exports. An economic principle that mimes the belief that our nation is founded on the principles of immigration and ethnic diversity.
Food has remarkable cultural importance. Baguettes (France) and Focaccia bread (Italy) have different taste due to native flour and different baking styles. However other goods do not have such strong cultural connotations due to regulative practices. For most of my childhood I used to play a cheap Yamaha piano. Even though the company is a Japanese power-house producing everything and anything from motorcycles to sports equipment, there was no reflection of culture in the product. No matter where your piano is from, each key is tuned to a specific frequency that emits a sound when struck. In objective terms, businesses sell goods and products. The cultural attitude or the impression that we develop is how we personally relate to released goods. After breaking down the Yamaha, I moved on to a Steinway. To be honest it still played the same piece of music in the way I wanted it to be played (the Steinway was slightly better. We paid a lot more for it).
I think that when you look at globalization, it is important to see both sides of the coin. It is true that foreign trade could possibly lead to a world-wide monoculture. A world where somehow we have intermingled beliefs that are centered around a common ideology of capitalism. Culture has a major influence on our individual lives and our beliefs. Even though it is easy to lapse into negatives, it is important to realize that we have a rich diversity of choices in cars, food, and other products due to foreign interaction. The fact that I have to consider between getting a panini or having lo mein indicates that American society has been equally influenced by foreign businesses.
Even if you have the same businesses spread throughout every country, each nation has it's own set of laws and policies. In the United States, Wal-mart and other companies has had a major influence on the downsizing of U.S. pharmaceutical companies. According to U.S. law, when pharmaceutical companies produce a new drug, they are allowed to be sole distributors for a couple of years (patent). After their patent expires, any company can sell the drug they developed at a cheaper price. This has been a game of cat and mouse between pharmaceutical companies and big chain producers like Wal-mart. A pharmaceutical company will spend nearly a hundred billion dollars to develop hundreds of drugs only to finally produce a magic pill, run it by the FDA, have it patented, and then have eight years to make a justifiable profit before Wal-mart mass produces it. In the 1970s-1990s drug companies had robust research and development departments. But with new drugs being harder to find, pharmaceuticals have begun to shrink and less money is being put into research. With illnesses like the flu constantly evolving and research departments collapsing, it remains questionable how the law can affect certain businesses, as it affects society as consumers. Will Wall-mart ever have the same influence on the Chinese? The short answer is no.
Globalization is a macroscopic issue fraught with intricacies. I don't believe it's possible to shoot off one definitive answer. All I know is that the U.S. imports far more than it exports. An economic principle that mimes the belief that our nation is founded on the principles of immigration and ethnic diversity.